The City of Lost Engrams

I was travelling back in time to an unreal place when The City appeared again after a long absence. It had been 16 months since we ’d been together, and The City was not pleased. A vivid image of the security lines at the airport ushered me out of town to continue my journey to The Place That Doesn’t Exist.A diabolical entanglement known as time has stolen memories from their homes in thedentate gyrus,lateral amygdala,precuneus, and elsewhere. These engrams hold the key to the past and the future. Without them – and their mysteriously stored representations – “we are condemned to aneternal present. ”Dwelling in the present is the path to enlightenment – “…the only moment to be alive is thepresent moment. ”1  There is no past and no future. The amnesiac iconH.M. was the perfect being.And yet, avoiding the past makes everything seem unreal. So does avoidance of anunlivable present. Perhaps I am preoccupied with a future of Other Deaths. That, I am not ready for.The dead are neglected and forgotten byother people because their windows of tolerance are closed to further mourning. Their lack of reinforcement negates my grief. The opportunities forsystems consolidation2 are waning.Time. Avoidance. Neglect. They all silence my memories of The City.I ' ve had hundreds ofinvoluntary visual images appear in my mind ' s eye like photographs, and I ' ve documented all of them.The images visit me rarely these days. They must be forcefully shaken from their torpor....
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs